A North Korean is on average six inches shorter than a South Korean.
– Christopher Hitchens writes about A Nation of Racist Dwarfs
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Samizdata quote of the dayFebruary 5th, 2010 |
 16 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Morlocks.
Wow. Not surprising, given the differences in nutrition, but that’s almost as stark as the nighttime photo from space at pointing out the contrast between the two.
Reading some of the delusion in the comment section is nearly as disturbing as the article.
That is the article in which Hitchens beclowns himself by asserting that the North Korean regime is a creature of the right instead of the left. Such a contortion is necessary in his mind before he can speak clearly about what is happening in that country.
Sad really. The word “caricature” appeared many times in the comment section of that article since a lot of people predicted in advance that the left would try such a thing.
Alsadius: Hitchens mentions it in the article too.
The left-right dichotomy is indeed a caricature, but if one manages to ignore it, the article is interesting, and the book it is relying on sounds even more so.
Come to think of it, how does anyone know this?
Isn’t that a Good Thing? Don’t short people consume Less Resources, and aren’t they therefore More Sustainable?
How Environmentally Friendly North Korea must be!
Brian – you took it out of my mouth!
Black skies with no electricity – why, this is a dream come true for all “environmentally concerned” in my industry…I speak as LEED-AP, I’d know. One of the options for getting “Sustainable sites” LEED credit is described as “Light Pollution Reduction”, and the goal of it stated as “eliminate light trespass, improve night sky access and reduce developmental impact on nocturnal environments” – Well, North Koreans would get that credit, hands down. As most of the the other 54…
And I agree with voluble, too. Obligatory for “progressives” disassociation with totalitarian socialist regimes takes ridiculous, transparent forms – like pointing out that the word “communism” was erased from NK constitution. As if it makes them automatically “extreme right-wing”. Riiiight, exactly like nazis in leftist’ mind are not socialists – if you concentrate on the word “National” and forget the “Socialist”. As if the state the country is in now is not the result of 50 years of totalitarian socialist regime.
The height differences: the same tendency exist between Chinese who emigrated in US when adults and those of the same age who were born here. American Chinese are generally taller, not as thin, and lack skeletal diseases (scoliosis, etc) compared to native Chinese.
Hitchens seems to have forgotten his own point found in his “Letters to a Young Contrarian” when he quoted Adam Michnik, Polish dissident, essayist and newspaper editor:
“The crucial distinction between political systems involves those who do, and those who do not, think that the citizen is or should be the property of the state.”
In other words, it isn’t about ideology of left vs. right. Hitchens had said that Michnik’s comment changed his life.
I didn’t see anywhere in the article Hitchens assigning any importance to the left-right distinction in and of itself, other than it being used as a label for the different means by which different kinds of statists gain and maintain control over their citizens. I have no idea what goes on in his head, but from what I’ve heard of the man and following on James’ remark above, Hitchens can be read here as making precisely the point that the distinction is meaningless, and that said statists often switch means and labels when it suits them. I could well be missing something though.
It is important Alisa – note how Christopher Hitchins describes North Korea as owned by the dictator’s family.
Of course it is not some sort of private estate – the Kims are as much creatures of the system as the slaves are (they just have more perks – a LOT more perks, as long as they keep their position in the Party of course).
And what is that system?
SOCIALISM.
That is the fact (and it is a fact) that Christopher Hitchens.
There are two main sorts of leftist.
Those who refuse to accept the facts (such as the weird creatures who write some of the comments – real Guardian letters page, or BBC, types).
And there are those, like Christopher Hitchens, who try to honestly report the facts (as best they can – I accept that checking stuff like “are the six inches shorter or five inches or seven inches” is going to be difficult), but REFUSE to accept the obvious conclusion of those facts – namely that socialism is a bad thing.
For if one accepts both the facts and the conclusions – then one can not be a socialist any more.
One need not become a libertarian – but to remain a socialist is not an option.
An example of someone who accepted the facts and did not hide from the conclusion those facts suggest, is Christopher Hitchens own brother – once his fellow socialist Peter Hitchens.
By the way – in case there are any “Greens” about.
No – the fact that North Koreans eat less and that the place is dark does NOT mean it is less of a “burden on nature”.
Indeed environmental damage is GREATER in the north than in the south.
“But that makes no sense” – yes it does, to people who understand the nature of socialism.
By the way if a dictator has big private estates this sort of environmental damage is what one does NOT tend to have.
The classic example is Trujillo in the Domincan Republic (dictator for about 30 years).
He was a bad man in many ways – but his large private estates were well managed, the forests were not destroyed and the rivers well maintained for hydro electric projects.
Utterly DIFFERENT from North Korea – where natural resources are not privately owned at all (whether by the Kim family or anyone else).
By the way the lack of secure private property rights in next door Haiti (a land of communalism and criminality) produced another famous photograph.
The green of the Domincan Republic compared to the deforestation of Haiti.
Paul, but how much of a socialist is Christopher Hitchens still is?
To judge by this article (and others) quite a bit of a socialist.
“But Christopher Hitchens supported Bush” – which should have alterted people to the fact that the policies of George Walker Bush were very misguided.
What surprises me about this is that a Korean War veteran once told me that he could tell a North Korean from a South Korean by their stature, that North Koreans tended to be taller, with longer limbs. It rather reminds me of the gain in stature by the average Japanese after the Second World War, when the American occupation encouraged a diet higher in vitamins.
Yes – under Japanese rule the northern parts of Korea were more industrialized and better off.
This does not surpise me.
Take two islands of equal size.
One with vast natural resources – and yes factories and stuff.
And the other with nothing at all.
Put the first island under socialism – and allow the people of the second island to be free.
I think we can all guess how things would turn out.